Billboards are Expensive Real Estate; Don't Waste Them

“You would look good in maroon.”

That’s what a college billboard told me last week, in letters two feet tall, on a stretch of highway that probably costs close to six figures a year to rent. (Color changed to protect the innocent.)

The entire budget bought a compliment.

Billboards are expensive real estate. That makes every word valuable. Is “you’d look good in our school color” really the most important thing we have to say?

There is a useful idea from Clayton Christensen that applies here: people hire products to do a job. Nobody wants a quarter-inch drill. They want the hole it makes.

Apply that to college choice, and the billboard is missing a huge opportunity. A prospective student is hiring a college to do a job. For one student, the job might be “leave home ready for a specific career.” For another, it might be “earn a credential that changes how people see me.” Sometimes the job has less to do with careers and more with people, like finding others who make it safe to be different from who they were in high school.

Each job points to a different message, and none of the good ones sound like “you would look good in maroon.”

A stronger billboard starts with a harder question than what looks good on us. It starts with: what job is the person at that intersection actually trying to get done?

Say that, in eight words or less.